GAINESVILLE - Six Gainesville State College (GSC) Mediation Team students won recognition at the 13th Annual International Academy of Dispute Resolution National Intercollegiate Mediation Tournament held recently at Brenau University.

The GSC team of Amy Broome, Scott Fuller, and Gina Schwartz won a place in the vaulted Tournament Final Round held Saturday afternoon before the Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court as one of the Final Round judges. The GSC team team won overall Fourth Place in the Mediator Team competition for the tournament. Broome represented GSC in the Final Mediator team competition. Additionally, Fuller was named an All American Mediator, being one of the top 20 students competing as Mediator at the tournament.

The GSC team of Fernando Gonzalez, Kiran Singh, and Bethany Waites also earned distinction by being named the #9 Client/Advocate Team in the Tournament.

The Tournament had 38 total teams competing with over 114 students participating in the competition. GSC Team Alternates Penny Hollis and Consepcion Rodriguez also competed as a bye Advocate/Client substitute team in the first round of competition, as did the swing Advocate/Client team of GSC Alternates Ariana Melendez and Branden Shaw. As a result, GSC had all of its ten Mediation Team students actually participate in this national intercollegiate tournament competition, with six of those students earning recognition.

The GSC Mediation Team Coach and Advisor is Ray-Lynn Snowden, JD, along with Advisor Dr. C. Thomas Preston, Jr., both from the GSC Communication, Mediation Studies, Journalism Department.

Twenty-three colleges and universities from around the country were represented at this Tournament. Some of the teams participating were Boston College, Massachusetts; University of San Diego, California; University of Texas-Dallas, Texas; University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Wisconsin; University of Dubuque, Iowa; Cameron University, Oklahoma; Lewis University, Illinois; Middle Tennessee State University, Tennessee; University of North Carolina Charlotte, North Carolina; and University of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Georgia schools which participated besides GSC were Brenau University, Clayton State University, Georgia State University, Middle Georgia College, and Kennesaw State University.

The Drake University team from Iowa won First Place in the Mediator Team Final competition with the Texas Wesleyan College team winning First Place in the Finals for Advocate/Client teams.

Hall County officials believe healthy county employees will be of greater service to the county. With that in mind, they have created a health-based fitness initiative to provide free fitness training for county workers.

The Lumpkin County Board of Commissioners (BOC) recently signed a Settlement Agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), five years after an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) audit of county facilities.